A handwritten bomb-threat note found on tissue paper in a women's toilet at Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on Friday morning, October 23, triggered an extensive security search of the terminal, officials said. The note warned that a bomb had been planted at boarding gate number 30.

Source: PTI via The Hindu BusinessLine

A cleaning staff member found the note and alerted the authorities, an airport official told PTI. The area around gate 30 was cleared as Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and a bomb squad launched thorough checks at the gate and across the airport premises.

Source: IANS via Hi India

"The search is still underway, and no suspicious object has been found so far. Also, there was no disruption to flight operations," an official told PTI. IANS likewise reported that nothing suspicious had been found by CISF troopers and personnel of the Airport Police Station, which functions under the Bidhannagar City Police, and that flight services had not been affected.

What is solid

  • A handwritten note on tissue paper warning of a bomb at boarding gate 30 was found by cleaning staff in a women's toilet at Kolkata airport on Friday morning (PTI; IANS).
  • CISF personnel and a bomb squad searched gate 30 and the wider premises, and no suspicious object had been found at the time of reporting (PTI; IANS).
  • Flight operations were not disrupted, according to an airport official quoted by PTI.

What is only claimed

  • Who wrote the note and why remains unknown; police were questioning the cleaning staff who found it and examining CCTV footage, and no official had declared the threat a hoax at the time of reporting (IANS).

Police are questioning the cleaning staff who first spotted the note and are checking CCTV footage to establish who used the toilet area around that time, according to IANS. Security at the airport has been stepped up, and the airport was busier than usual as travellers returned at the end of the Durga Puja holiday.

This is the second bomb scare at Kolkata airport this month. On October 8, the airport received a similar threat by email, and a thorough search at that time also found nothing suspicious, IANS reported.